William Birkin
Dr. William Birkin was a virologist who worked for Umbrella Pharmaceuticals in the 1990s-2010s. The head of the Golgotha Virus research project, he turned against the Umbrella Corporation after failing to achieve a promotion to its executive. The company's attempts to prevent an unauthorized deal with the U.S. military served as a catalyst for the events of the Raccoon City Destruction Incident. Biography Early Life William David Birkin was born on August 7, 1982, though not much else is known about his early life. He was a child prodigy who excelled and graduated high school at the age of eleven and earned his doctorate (PhD) as a teenager. In 1997, at the age of fifteen, he was employed by Umbrella Pharmaceuticals, and offered to take the executive training program at a laboratory in Arklay County under the oversight of Dr. James Marcus. William and Dr. Albert Wesker developed a friendly rivalry at the school while being conditioned to Umbrella's ethical ideals. Their education was concluded on July 29, 1998 when a decision was made to close the laboratory's school. Birkin and Wesker were offered senior roles at the nearby Arklay Laboratory and transferred there two days later. Arklay Lab (1998-2011) On their first day as senior researchers, the two were introduced to Lisa Trevor, a young woman who had been a test subject at the lab since 1987. The laboratory's chief researcher approved William's study into the splicing of their experimental Tyrant Virus (or "t-Virus") with genes from recently-collected Ebola Virus samples Umbrella had acquired for the purpose of vaccine research. The laboratory's chief researcher approved Birkin's study into the splicing of their experimental Tyrant Virus (or "t-Virus") with genes from recently-collected Ebola Virus samples Umbrella had acquired for the purpose of vaccine research. The t-Virus strain at the laboratory had a rapid and high fatality rate, making it useless as a weapon as it was unlikely to spread far. Birkin's study led to a new t-Virus strain which could keep humans alive in an aggressive, brain damaged state. In July 2001, Umbrella officially employed the child prodigy Dr. Alexia Ashford as a senior virologist. Believed at the time to be the granddaughter of the Umbrella co-founder Dr. Edward Ashford, Earl Ashford, the ten-year-old quickly gained an aura of majesty within the company. Birkin was severely affected by this, firstly with it damaging his pride of being a child prodigy, and secondly his fellow researchers' constant discussion of it. With research having stalled since 1998, Birkin was determined to prove himself and took part in constant research to solve the new problem of some 10% of the population being immune to the t-Virus. This, Birkin solved, with the development of Bio Organic Weaponry, and successfully developed Hunter α, a bio-weapon created through bonding reptilian DNA with a fertilised human egg through the t-Virus. In 2003, Dr. Ashford's death was announced company-wide, though Birkin continued in his own research even with the imagined rivalry over. During his time at the Arklay Laboratory, William began a relationship with another researcher named Annette Boyd and started dating. They married sometime in around 2006 and later had a daughter named Sherry who was born on September 6, 2008. By 2008, the Arklay Lab hit another dead-end in research when its latest project, "Tyrant", was met with a serious flaw. As advantageous, mutagenic properties of the t-Virus were linked to brain chemistry, a strain that caused brain damage was an obstacle. At some point during the research that gave them the Proto Tyrant and T-002, Birkin created a t-Virus strain which lowered the level of brain damage. However, this strain still required the infected to have certain, rare genetic traits that only one in ten million possessed. During this year he gained access to Dr. Marcus' t-Virus research to bolster his own, when Dr. Spencer ordered his assassination. Birkin followed the USS raid party and began confiscating the research, gaining the moniker of "creator" of the t-Virus while the elderly Marcus laid dying of gunshot wounds. As another possible solution to the intelligence problem, Birkin arranged with Dr. Spencer himself to acquire one of Umbrella Europe's NE-α Types, parasitic creatures able to take-over brain functions. However, the parasites were notorious for killing their hosts in their attempts to bond. After exhausting other options, Birkin resorted to using the parasite on the only viable host, Lisa Trevor, who had still survived the years of experimentation. When the parasite was placed within Lisa, her body destroyed the intruder and its DNA was added to her genome, giving her tentacles. An investigation isolated a mutant Progenitor species within her body identified as the cause. Seeing the eugenics potential of a virus capable of mutating humans into a superior subspecies, Birkin sought funding from Umbrella HQ to allow him to work on "Golgotha," known in shorthand as the "G-Virus." Underground Laboratory research (2011-2018) When Birkin's discovery got Dr. Spencer's attention, Umbrella constructed the NEST adjacent to their chemical plant in the northeast of the city, completed in 2011. There, Birkin was chief researcher and directly led research into Golgotha with his wife, Annette and a team of researchers with unrelated B.O.W. projects also conducted by other teams in the facility. The Raccoon Police Department's chief, Brian Irons, received bribes to keep any investigations away from the laboratory and was given updates as to the research. Though work on Golgotha was promising along the 2010s, Birkin began to suspect Umbrella was disinterested in giving him a position as a corporate executive. In May–July 2018, the t-Virus slowly broke out across the Arklay Mountains, leading to dozens of deaths and mutations of civilians as well as the investigating S.T.A.R.S. members, the loss of the Arklay Laboratory itself, the recently re-opened training school, and a train transporting staff to it. Birkin had the training school destroyed, though he and Wesker already drew the ire of Umbrella executive Col. Sergei Vladimir, who blamed the pair for losing control of the school in the first place. Wesker made the decision to leave Umbrella and sell secrets to a rival company, though Birkin, adamant on completing Golgotha, officially stayed with the company. Plotting to betray them from the inside, Birkin had contact with the US military to sell them Golgotha for their own bio-weapons project in exchange for protection and immunity for him and his family. In early September 2018, Birkin began sabotaging the facilities. The newly-commissioned P12A facility, designed to process contaminated waste was rendered useless when Birkin flooded the facility with a radically accelerated supply of failed test subjects. The chemical effectiveness was diluted, allowing the virus to mutate and infect the staff with a strain their antiviral medication could not fight. Umbrella took notice of Birkin's erratic behavior and knowing that only his lab had samples of Golgotha, they grew even more concerned that he would prevent them from receiving the virus. Mutation and Death (2018) With Golgotha complete, the U.S. military sent a team out to meet with William. Having moles within the military, Umbrella HQ's suspicions were confirmed and a USS squad was sent out on a race to confiscate the virus first. With advanced warning, the USS operation was disrupted when a police officer spotted them entering the sewers and recovered C-4 explosives. On the night of September 22, Alpha Team leader "HUNK" arrived at the facility with a task force to obtain the virus. William refused to hand it over and tried to resist arrest by pulling his handgun out. William was gunned down with automatic fire by an overzealous soldier. The Alpha Team retrieved a duralumin case containing "t" and "G" samples and left for the sewers to their extraction point. After the Alpha Team left, William is revealed to have barely survived and infected himself with a remaining G sample, but the virus didn't properly stabilize onto his body and the scientist himself was unable to become a G-human and instead began to transform into a large creature simply known as "G." Annette arrived but she was too late to stop her husband. She picked up his handgun and aimed it at him, knowing what was happening, but couldn't bring herself to pull the trigger. Annette then left possibly out of guilt. Intent on vengeance, G followed the USS into the sewers and they were all killed. In the process, he also destroyed several "t" samples, allowing rats to consume them and spread the virus into the city's water supply. From September 24-29, the city's population of 1,940,000 were either killed or infected, although 200,000 residents managed to escape safely while more than a thousand sought refuge at the Raccoon Police Station. The infection eventually spread into the Police Station, turning all the survivors into zombies with the exception of Chief Irons, Captain Harris, Marvin Branagh, Elliot Edward and Sherry Birkin. Sherry had to keep running and hiding in order to survive and eventually made it to an underground passage below the station. Driven entirely by basic instincts, G searched for food, whether alive or dead and vessels for reproduction. The sewers fell under the control of rejected G embryos, which had made themselves a colony. Role in Resident Hero Ultimately, G sought out Sherry who, as a blood relation, was a viable carrier for his parasitic larvae. Sherry was eventually found by survivors Claire Redfield and Christopher Kent (as a depowered Superman II). Claire was new to the city, searching for her missing brother while Chris has been transported to the place after his ferocious battle with A.M.A.Z.O. back on Earth-Prime. G attacked Chris and Claire but they are able to defeat the creature. After his defeat, G evolved and grew large talons in his already mutated right arm. During G's search of Raccoon City Orphanage for carriers, he parasitised Chief Irons, who had kidnapped Sherry and held her hostage. After Irons was incapacitated (and later died), Sherry discovered a trapdoor and a ladder that led further down into the orphanage's basement and underground passage where she would hide until Claire and Chris found her. G soon killed T-00 at an elevator to the Umbrella sewer facility as it tried to attack Sherry, Claire and Chris. Sherry sees the mutated face of the G-creature and finally recognises it as her father. G then jumps on the elevator and is sent plummeting at great speeds while both Sherry and Claire scream. Chris used his body and cape, doing his best to protect Claire and Sherry from the fall, knowing that it would certainly kill them and that he's the only one capable of surviving the full impact. After the fall, G was somehow temporarily separated from the trio. Sherry is relatively unharmed while Chris is near-unconscious (due to exhaustion and having absorbed the brunt of the impact) and Claire is knocked out with minor injuries. Sherry attempts to get both of them to wake up but runs off scared upon hearing the large footsteps of G. As Sherry ran, she eventually trips over and lands hard, knocking her out. Without Chris and Claire around, this leaves Sherry vulnerable. At this point, G catches up and successfully implants Sherry with a G-larvae. Soon, a passed out Sherry is eventually found by her mother Annette who locks her inside a garbage disposal room for her own safety. Claire and Chris eventually found their way around the underground facility (encountering and defeating G a second time) and managed to reach Sherry who was infected. Sherry was rushed to NEST for treatment but unknown to everyone, G followed. While in NEST, G caught up to Claire and Chris but was soon attacked by Annette with an anti-B.O.W. weapon and temporarily incapacitated. As Annette told the two the sad truth about her husband, G recovered and threw Annette at a wall, fatally wounding her but she defiantly gets up. G then mutates and evolves into a third form with four arms. Claire gives Annette the antiviral agent and sends her off to treat Sherry while the two remained behind to battle the creature. G, however, is defeated rather easily due to the fact that Chris was able to regain a small fraction of his powers by absorbing the solar energy stored in plant life at the NEST's greenhouse. A badly wounded but determined Annette eventually makes it to the security-medical bay and successfully gives Sherry the vaccine, thus curing her of the G-Virus. Soon, Claire and Chris catch up to check on them. As Annette soon succumbs to her wounds, she asks her daughter for forgiveness for being a bad parent neglecting her. Annette then tells all of them that the facility will self-destruct in order to prevent the G-Virus from leaving the building and gives Claire her ‘Level IV Admin’ chip in order to escape. Annette then dies seconds later. Again (and unbeknownst to everyone), G recovers and followed Claire and Sherry as they headed down to the lower levels of the facility to activate the emergency train. Chris states that he needs to fly out of Earth’s atmosphere in order to gain full power and truly put a stop to this. Chris takes off while Claire and Sherry escape the lab. As they made it down, they entered the train carriage designed to exit the facility but Claire needs to get it moving. While Sherry remains inside the carriage, G finds and attacks Claire but she is able to defeat him again after a hard fight. His fourth defeat would leave him severely wounded, but G was able to continue on and boarded the escape train without Claire or Sherry knowing. Mutating into his fifth and final form, a blob with multiple limbs, eyes and tentacles and entered the rear carriages of the train. After a short fight, G wasn’t down just yet and managed to wrap a tentacle around Claire’s leg. However, a fully powered Chris/Superman II use his heat vision and arctic breath to incapacitate G, unbuckled the carriage, then delivered the final blow by flying right through his giant eye/mouth at hypersonic speed, killing him instantly. His remains were engulfed in the explosion from NEST while Superman II flew back and helped Leon, Claire and Sherry get out of the tunnel faster. G, formerly known as Dr. William Birkin and the father of Sherry, would never be heard of or seen again. Physical Appearance Human William is a Caucasian male in his mid-30's, standing under 6 feet tall (5 feet, 10 inches) and has an average build. William had blonde hair and hazel eyes. William nearly always wore a white long-sleeved polo shirt accompanied with a necktie, gray or black long trousers and brown or black lace up business shoes. He also wore his ID tag on his left breast pocket. In one of the Birkin family photos, William is seen wearing a white collar shirt and a dark coloured V-neck sweater. G1 After mutating into his first G form, Birkin's right arm grew drastically larger and more muscular, developing a tumour-like eyeball and a bony projection on the shoulder. His transformation shredded his buttoned shirt, torn his pants, busted his shoes and left the tattered lab coat covering his malformed body from the waist up. He had a tumor-like eyeball that became larger and gained a red pupil to match its light red sclarae. His trousers are covered with blood stains and the right half of his face is now covered in mutated parts of the skin to match up his mutated body. Interestingly, G1's right arm periodically "de-evolves" slightly, becoming smaller as the eye on the shoulder closes and the spikes retract; this seems to represent Birkin attempting to restrain the G-Virus's degenerative effects on his mind, although it's clearly a losing battle. G2 G2's general appearance comprised of its left secondary arm being functional; the right side of its stomach shows either signs of the other arm developing or part of its rib cage. Its claws are longer, and the developing rings of spines on its chest have been removed. The developing secondary cranium has yellow eyes (mutated parts of flesh slightly obscuring the right eye) and a mouth to show its fangs. G3 In his third form, G’s body gains more muscle mass and a leaner physique, destroying all remaining traces of clothing. His new head becomes more skull-like with a lipless grin. The second pair of arms have become fully developed and functional, the primary arms now both have talons and have shifted to the shoulders, and a new eye appears on his thigh. The remnants of Birkin's human face are horribly distorted, barely visible under G's lower-left arm, the eye on its left thigh has become proportionately larger, and the monster has several more bony protrusions on its limbs. The "mouth" on G's chest has teeth, however, it's revealed to contain a cluster of small eyeballs that are exposed when the monster is significantly damaged. G4 G4 resembles a heavily-degraded version of G3 on its way to mutating into G5. Its secondary arms have vanished, and the "mouth" on its chest now dominates most of its torso, with large tusks and eyes protruding in an almost random fashion. Its flesh has become bloated and almost tumorous - seemingly dissolving into independent tendrils only partially fused together - but the monster maintains a bipedal stance, dropping to all fours to move more quickly and climb up walls. The eyes of its degraded head are green, while the rest dotting its body are their usual yellow-to-red. G5 In his fifth and final form, G’s body has been damaged to the point where almost all semblance of higher biology has collapsed entirely. G5 is massively larger than previous forms, being able to rip off the top of the train car to accommodate itself. It has several tumour-like eyes inside of its mouth, the largest of which ends up being destroyed by Superman II flying straight through it. It also seems to spread tiny tendrils of biomass ahead of its main mass, giving the train car a fleshy, "rotting" appearance as it advances. Personality William comes across as a busy, cynical, ignorant and uncaring workaholic, possibly even more so than his wife Annette. Although William and Annette fell in love in each other and had a daughter together, they still shown that their work was more important. He was even more preoccupied and focused in his research of "G" in the year of 2018, believing that he is so close to making a breakthrough. William's obsession with his work was so great that he appeared to care little of his daughter Sherry and thus would leave her at home by herself, sometimes even without a babysitter. At times, William would get into arguments with his colleagues and even his wife. When Annette later talks about her relationship with her husband, she flat out admits to Claire and Chris "we were more married to our work than each other." Both of the Birkin family photos shows that William and Annette had flat, uncaring expressions on their faces while Sherry was the only one smiling. After being confronted by the USS, William was brave and wasn't intimidated by them in the slightest, by refusing to hand over his research and attempting to resist arrest. However, this act caused one soldier to open fire, seemingly killing him. After the USS stole his samples and left him for dead, William sworn vengeance and revenge, proceeding to inject himself with one remaining G sample. Upon recovering, He shouts out in anger and despair that "G" was his creation before the effects of the sample took place in his body. During his transformation into the G-creature, William's humanity and intelligence gradually deteriorated but retained enough to be able to kill any USS soldier he sees and destroy any samples that he sees. Even over time, William has shown to try and fight the G-Virus for control in an attempt to regain his humanity and it was shown that retained a degree of it in his first form. When his right mutated arm shrinks, his cries become less monstrous and distorted, he screams "Help Me!", "Kill!" and most infamously "SHEEERRRRY!" he occasionally pauses to swing at thin air or attempt to pry open the eyeball on his shoulder, leaving him vulnerable. In his first and second forms, William seems to desperately take control of his humanity and appears to be trying to protect Sherry by attacking threats to ensure her safety (such as Brian Irons or the T-00) before the G-Virus instincts take over once again. From his third to final form, William's humanity and former personality is no more and only became a mindless beast in an attempt to survive and reproduce. He was noticeably persistent in pursuing Sherry, since as blood relation, he can reproduce using her. Powers After being accidentally gunned by the an overzealous soldier of the Umbrella Security Service, a dying Birkin injected himself with the G-Virus so as to gain vengeance upon the Alpha Team. While the G-Virus initially revived him back to normal as seen when Annette found him, he nonetheless began to mutate further into a large monstrous beast with uncanny regenerative powers. * Regenerative Healing Factor: Because of the G-virus in his body, Birkin had developed fierce regenerative abilities which make him almost biologically immortal and very difficult to kill. Upon injecting himself with the G-Virus, Birkin regenerated from his fatal gunshots and was relatively fine by the time Annette found him declaring vengeance upon the Alpha Team. Even after taking extensive amounts of damage from various bullets, rounds and explosives, the G-Virus was still able to regenerate him, but at the same time deformed him into a shapeless blob-like beast. However, injuries and attacks caused by beings of much greater power, like Superman II, would be able to kill him permanently and his healing factor will not save him. More notably, in his final form, his healing factor was stunted and seemingly wasn’t able to regrow his tentacles after Superman II cut them with his heat vision. ** Regenerative Mutation: Whenever Birkin’s body was too damaged to be repaired properly, the G-Virus forced his body to mutate further, possibly as a response to the extensive trauma. This meant that whenever his genetic make-up took extensive amounts of damage, the G-Virus began mutating him further, making him more horrific and monstrously deformed than before with each mutation process, transforming him into a true beast rather than a humanoid being. In his third form, he was even able to come back from an otherwise fatal neck snap from Superman II (although the latter only had a fraction of his power). However, a hypersonic speedblitz charge from a fully powered Superman II was able to instantly kill him, with the combination of the massive explosion from the self-destructing NEST lab. ** Superhuman Strength: His mutations had cause him to develop much more grotesque muscle mass which in turn gave him superhuman strength which had increased with every form he took. Birkin possessed enough strength to kill a USS soldier in one blow and a few more with minimal efoort, send a depowered Superman II flying with a strong blow, tear through T-00 Tyrant and destroy him and in his final form, he was able to slowly devour a train carriage. However, a depowered Superman II was able to keep up with his first two forms and even defeat him both times, with the help of Claire Redfield. In his third form, he was strong enough to lift and hurl heavy machinery weighing many tonnes but was still easily countered, overpowered and defeated by Superman II (who only had a fraction of his powers). In his final form, he was way stronger than his previous form but was still absolutely no match for a full powered Superman II, who flew through him with great speed and one-shotted him instantly. This shows that even with his great strength, he is completely outmatched and a non-threat against solar powered Kryptonians. ** Superhuman Durability: With each mutation, he develops more tolerance for ballistic and physical damage, especially those from the USS soldiers. However, he is not invincible as after a certain amount of ballistic attacks, it damages him. In his first form, he was able to take punches and strike from a depowered Superman II, plus several gunshots to the head and body without sustaining much damage. In his final form, he was able to take full on firepower and ammunition from Claire Redfield and Leon S. Kennedy. However, Superman II was able to cut through his tentacles with his heat vision with ease and immobilize him with freeze breath. He was killed instantly by a full powered Superman II, who flew through him with great speed. William’s remains were incinerated from the massive explosion from the self-destructing NEST lab. ** Bone Talons: By the time of his second mutation, Birkin has developed sharp bone Talons which can instantly kill anyone (including T-00) due to a combination of the talons and his superhuman strength. Although, even a depowered Superman II remained strong enough to break those talons by punching through them. In his final form, the bone talons were replaced by thousands of sharp teeth capable of slowly devouring a train carriage. However, these teeth were completely incapable of harming a full powered Superman II, who flew through his eye and mouth like it was nothing. ** Tumor Growths: William Birkin had also developed tumor like eyes around his body. However, they are more vulnerable to damage. * Reproduction: He has also demonstrated the ability to implant G-virus Spawn embryos/larvae in other people. If the person’s DNA is compatible with Birkin’s DNA, they will be combined with it and was nearly successful after implanting his daughter Sherry until she was cured by the antiviral vaccine, reversing the mutation’s effects. But if it’s not compatible, the embryo will tear out of their bodies when it has developed enough. They will then mutate into more mutated monstrosities. Strength Level Originally, William possessed the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engages in occasional exercise. After injecting himself with a G-sample, William became considerably stronger as he mutated. It is shown that in his third form, G can lift well over 10 tons and in his fifth form, he can apply more than 100 tons of force as he was able to slowly devour a train carriage. Abilities/Skills * Extraordinary Genius/Master Scientist (formerly): William was a child prodigy who earned his doctorate as a teenager. In 1997, at the age of fifteen, he was employed by Umbrella Pharmaceuticals, and offered to take the executive training program at a laboratory in Arklay County under the oversight of Dr. James Marcus. He became one of Umbrella’s best researchers and virologists and was able to research and create “G.” However, this intelligence was gradually lost when as he mutated and became “G,” losing his humanity and becoming a simple minded beast, only with the desire to reproduce and survive. Equipment * Glock Handgun (formerly): William owned a standard issue Glock handgun and tried to use it against the USS in an attempt of resistance but was shot down before he can fire. Annette later picked his gun up and kept it. * Duralumin Briefcase (formerly): William had a black metal briefcase that was designed to contain the G and T sample vials. This was later stolen by the USS but soon dropped when William came back as the G creature and attacked them. Relationships Family * Annette Birkin † – Collegue, Wife and Eventual Victim * Sherry Birkin – Daughter and Attempted G-Virus carrier Friends/Allies * Albert Wesker - Close Friend Enemies * HUNK – Attempted apprehender * USS Agents † – Victims and Attempted killers * Claire Redfield – Enemy, attempted victim/killer and indirect killer * Christopher Kent/Superman II - Enemy, attempted victim, defeater and killer * Leon S. Kennedy – Enemy, attempted victim/killer and indirect killer * Brian Irons † - Former Friend, Associate and Eventual Victim * T-00 Tyrant † - Victim Trivia * In the Resident Evil 2 Remake Video Game, William is voiced by T.J. Rotolo. ** William's 3D Scan Face Model is David Marie. * In both RE2make and Resident Hero, Annette flat out admits to Claire "we were more married to our work than each other." The Birkin family photo mentioned shows William and Annette with flat, uncaring expressions while Sherry is the only one actually smiling. * It's never directly explained how William/G made his way into the orphanage to hunt down Chief Irons and find Sherry. G couldn't have entered through the front doors as they were still chained when Claire and Chris arrived. The only logical explanation is that G found his way through the underground passages since for one, he was knocked further down by Chris after the first fight and two, the underground areas connect to the police station, the orphanage basement and underground facility. * The Birkins (both William and Annette) could be compared to the Dursleys from Harry Potter or the Wormwoods from Matilda. Especially because they cared more about their work, research and other things rather than their own daughter Sherry. ** In the Dursleys' case, they spoiled their biological son Dudley but treated their nephew Harry badly. ** In the Wormwoods' case, they cared about their son Michael and money among other things, but not so much with Matilda. In fact, they frequently neglected her and left her at home alone. Category:Resident Evil Characters Category:Males Category:Humans Category:Villains Category:Scientists Category:Creatures Category:Capcom Characters Category:Civilians Category:Deceased Characters Category:Meta-humans